The squeaky wheel
The political machinations of John O'Grady and Kevin Boyce come at the cost of competency at their day job.
Folks, it’s with profound pleasure that I report Columbus is big enough to have multiple factions of Democrats vying for power and prestige.
We saw the divide in March, with County Democrats backing Anthony Pierson for Franklin County prosecutor while City Democrats successfully backed Councilwoman Shayla Favor.
The next big fight appears to be the 2027 mayoral race. Whether Mayor Suburbs runs or not, City Council President Shannon Hardin and Columbus Attorney Zach Klein appear ready to make their move.
According to sources, Klein has the backing of Franklin County Commissioners Kevin Boyce and John O’Grady, who are not friends with Hardin.
I’ve been meaning to attend a Commissioners' meeting to introduce myself. On Monday night, I realized that they were set to meet on Tuesday morning at 369 S. High Street.
I gotta say! It’s a pretty sweet gig for them. How many regular citizens can attend at 9 o’clock in the morning on a Tuesday? Well, thanks to the brave and noble soldiers of the Patriots Caucus, I could ride my bike downtown and see the show for myself.
I found a room for maybe 15 people, which was a major red flag given the money and power the commissioners wield.
To speak, you have to fill out this form. You’ll notice it says you must submit the form to the Clerk of the Board “prior to the 9 a.m. start of the general session,” which the form stresses is “not an adversarial proceeding.”
The form doesn’t mention how it must be submitted. Via email? On the website, somewhere else? Or printed off and handed to the clerk before the meeting? I went with a printed paper saying I wanted to speak in favor of Resolution No. 0829-24:
Resolution authorizing the execution of the Pre-Award Conditions and acceptance of the FY2024 Byrne/State Crisis Intervention Program Subgrant Award and granting authority to the County Administrator to sign all acceptance documents and waivers related to the Grant Program. ($199,940.19)(Court of Common Pleas)
I’ll admit, I didn’t know much about it. But it seemed like a good piece of business.
My point to the Commissioners—barring Erica Crawley, about whom I have yet to hear a bad word—was that we could be doing more of this stuff if they were focused on doing their jobs and not political scheming.
I didn’t raise this point in the video—it was more about introducing myself—but Boyce is running around with his wife, Congresswoman Emilia Sykes (D-Akron), telling people they’re going to be the “First Couple in Congress” (that we know about).
Being a commissioner and chairman of a bank isn’t enough for him! He also has to have designs on who should be our next mayor. But he also fancies himself as the heir apparent to Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, who could resign and force a special election if Kamala Harris wins next week and Beatty finally gets his Ambassadorship to the Caribbean she tried to get when Biden came to power.
Sorry, man! That’s not how democracy is supposed to work. Frankly, it makes me sick that voters have gone along with Boyce’s two-bit schemes for this long. In that regard, it makes sense that his ego dwarfs his child-sized frame.
But it’s also worth noting that all these power plays come at the expense of doing his job, which, it must be said, it pretty important.
It’s already laughable that Franklin County, with a population of over a million people and growing every day, only has three commissioners. But it’s deeply embarrassing that only Commissioner Crawley appears to be in office for the right reasons.
Take the recent funding reduction from the Department of Jobs & Family Services, which can be seen in the letter below:
On the face of it, it makes sense. The COVID spending bonanza wasn’t an infinite pot of money, no matter how national Republicans painted it.
Franklin County certainly isn’t the only government organization that had to make hard decisions, nor will it be the last.
But according to one connected source, whom The Rooster granted anonymity to prevent political blowback, many non-profit groups are “frustrated” over the lack of advanced warning about the severity of the cuts.
According to the source, multiple groups only learned a few weeks ago that the six-figure funding checks they’d received for “several years” were no longer happening.
This source wasn’t the first to speak to The Rooster about commissioners being “disengaged,” especially regarding services used by poor people.
From my vantage point, it doesn’t seem like Commissioners Boyce or O’Grady give a damn. They haven’t expressed any regret beyond having a subordinate send a letter.
Through that lens, the Commissioners' actions make it appear they mismanaged the windfall and have now left organizations serving our city’s most vulnerable populations holding the bag.
To compound the problem, all this is happening out of the sight of the public eye as Boyce and O’Grady cruise to re-election next month. But make no mistake: Neither of them deserve your vote.
They aren’t particularly good at their jobs and seem to have a disdain for poor people that would make your average Statehouse Republican blush. And at least with the Statehouse crew, you can go to the Statehouse and badger them in the hallways.
Boyce and the Commissioners have a well-oiled machine. They are in charge of a $2 billion budget, and they rarely, if ever, have to deal with any “adversarial” comments.
They seem worthy of more scrutiny, especially since they laughably see themselves as political kingmakers.
If anyone has any tips about our beautiful commissioners—please email me or drop me a line anonymously.
It doesn’t have to be Pulitzer-worthy, either. All gossip is good gossip, as far as I’m concerned.
If it’s to be a Democratic Civil War, I don’t want to fight alongside the likes of Boyce and O’Grady.
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